Public schools overwhelmed with illegal immigrant students in non-border states are struggling with the cost and shortage of multi-lingual teachers.
By Eileen Griffin
Non-border states, including Oklahoma and Colorado, are deluged by the influx of illegal immigrant children into taxpayer-funded schools.
The unsecure border is impacting more than housing resources as the education system becomes overwhelmed with migrant children, OANN reports.
Oklahoma Superintendent for Public Instruction Ryan Walters told OANN that illegal immigrants and fentanyl are having an impact on education in the Sooner State.
“The amount of resources schools are using to deal with an influx of illegal immigrants who will come in on a year-to-year basis—we have seen some rural districts increase over 50 percent in just a year to year because of a mass influx of illegal immigrants,” said Walters. “So, they are trying to find folks who can translate. They are trying to find more teachers. This is unsustainable for small districts.”
Walters said it is a burden that most districts cannot manage. The pressure makes it difficult for teachers to manage the illegal immigrants while also teaching American students.
Denver schools are also being overwhelmed by illegal immigrant children, Fox News reports. Teachers don’t have the resources to manage the influx of students. To provide for migrants, services to citizens are reduced.
“We are already 100 students over projection, and we have new students coming in weekly,” Denver teacher Priscilla Rahn told Fox News. “We’re already past the October count. So, every new student that we get, we don’t have the funds to provide them with resources.”
The cost to Denver taxpayers to support illegal immigrant students is projected to be approximately $180 million for 2024.
Denver continues to see school enrollment jump throughout the school year with migrant students continuing to arrive, CBS News reports. The district was already serving more than 3,400 migrant students at the start of the school year. In January, 630 additional students had to be absorbed. In February, so far, another 530 children have arrived in Denver public schools.
In addition to hiring teachers and teacher aides, the schools have purchased over 100 new computers, and they are adding bus routes. Teachers are asked to accommodate new students daily, some who have never been in a classroom before.
Cities like Denver and New York started the school year with many more students than expected due to the illegal immigrant surge, as Heartland Daily News previously reported. Schools had to scramble just to find space for all the additional children.
In addition to space, part of the cost of educating children from all over the world is the language barrier. Many of the students arriving at American schools do not speak English. Schools must either absorb the expense of hiring interpreters or some have decided to abandon teaching English altogether.
The average cost to educate illegal immigrant students is $14,840 per year per student, The Hill reports. The estimated number of undocumented children is 513,000. The resulting expense is $7.6 billion to educate undocumented children for one year.
Since many of the illegal immigrant parents will be unable to work due to their undocumented status, most of the cost of educating their children will be the responsibility of the American taxpayer.
A study conducted at the end of 2022 by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) found that the Biden administration polices are placing a horrendous burden on public schools.
The FAIR study estimated remedial English language instruction costs the nation’s schools $78 billion per year. The overwhelming number of non-English speaking students is outpacing the ability to find, hire, and train teachers in the needed languages.
“By almost every metric, America’s education system is already failing our kids whose critical skills lag behind those of almost every one of our global competitors,” wrote Dan Stein, president of FAIR.
The non-English speaking children have further burdened an already struggling system, says Stein.
“Under the Biden administration, our failing educational system is being asked to cope with our failed immigration policies, which is a recipe for disaster,” Stein wrote.
In addition to the lack of language skills, many students come from countries where they did not receive an acceptable level of education even in their own language. Those students also join American classrooms, absorbing teacher time and resources.
While illegal immigrant families pay little or no taxes, they cost far more to educate due to the language and other needs.
State and local taxes are strained accommodating all the additional students, and the federal government only provides minor support.
“The large influx of new illegal LEP (limited English proficient) students under the Biden administration amounts to an unfunded federal mandate on state and local governments,” Stein wrote. “As a result of a narrow 1982 Supreme Court decision (Plyer v. Doe), all K-12 students must be provided a taxpayer-funded public education.”
“So, as more and more migrants move to the United States (legally and illegally) and enroll their children in public schools, the strain on school resources in only growing.”
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